The Leeds 10k in July of this year numbered among its runners several men who, while not exactly top-flight footballers, do share a pitch with them every weekend. The referees Howard Webb, Phil Dowd, Martin Atkinson, Michael Jones and Jon Moss pounded the roads of Yorkshire for charity and registered respectable times. Webb was quickest, striding home in 46min 41sec, with Jones narrowly behind in 47.34, followed by Atkinson at 47.45, a time matched by Moss, while Dowd brought up the rear in 50.04.

Going the extra mile (or six) in October last year was the Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio, who ended up running the Swindon half-marathon by mistake. The former West Ham forward was the official starter of the race and successfully sounded the starting gun before heading off on the two-mile fun run.

The Italian, though, took a wrong turn and ended up running the whole 13.1 miles in his full Swindon kit. "I couldn't stop, there was a challenge," he said after finishing in 1hr 49min. "There were three options, I thought I should start with the fun [run] marathon but unfortunately we changed direction, kept going and followed the first group."

"Unfortunately I ended up doing a full half marathon plus 800 metres. At the end I was very happy because I finished without stopping, even for one second. I wasn't ready but I never stopped running. I'm very happy but it was very tough."

At the full 26.2 mile distance, it tends to be former footballers running for charity rather than irascible Italian managers losing their way on a fun run. Some take it rather more seriously than others and the quickest time we've been able to find in the record books is the scintillating 3hr 22min 36sec run of the former Leicester midfielder Muzzy Izzet in the 2011 London marathon.

"I think I was 12 minutes off the time needed for an elite start so that is really encouraging. I was pleased with the time although I'd like to get to something like 3.08 or 3.09 if I do it again," he told the Leicester Mercury. "I've probably not done as much training as I thought I needed and I had a couple of weeks when I didn't do anything, so that wasn't ideal. But I was quite pleased with things. The last five or six miles were probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

Know anyone quicker than Izzet, Di Canio or Webb? Let us know at the usual address

PLAYERS WRITING NON-FOOTBALL BOOKS (2)

Last week, we had a stab at answering Warren Hull's question about footballers writing books on subjects other than football.

The examples were predominantly cookery-based (who doesn't need instruction on preparing chicken and pasta?), and there are more! "A few years ago my girlfriend signed up for a cookery book club here in Sweden, the idea being that she could order one recipe book a month for a bargain price," writes Ed Rostron. "After a couple of months she lost interest and they started sending her random books. One that turned up was 'Mitt Italien', by TV football pundit and former Atalanta midfielder Glenn Strömberg.

"It's a selection of pasta and pizza recipes organised by region, with brief interviews and tips from other Swedes who've played in Italy (Tomas Brolin, Kennet Andersson, Jesper Blomqvist, Sven etc). And it's actually rather good – the recipe for rigatoni with ragu bolognese is fantastic – though I don't imagine an English translation is available."

Alas, we couldn't find one, but here's another for the Christmas list: Sebastian Csar emailed to let us know that the former Hertha Berlin captain Arne Friedrich, now playing for Chicago Fire, co-wrote the optimistically titled "Foodball: Cook like a world champion". Set in soft focus photos of Friedrich chopping greens while the goateed celebrity chef Ralf Zacherl leans on a football close by, the foreword tells readers to "Keep on rolling the football und keep on cooking!"

"There is another bright example of a brilliant footballer writing about something completely different," writes Eberhard Spohd. "Horst Hrubesch. The German international (21 caps, six goals), the three-times German champion, winner of the Champions Cup and the one to score both goals in the Euro final in 1980 against Belgium [are you chairman of the fan club, Eberhard?] is not only a horse breeder, he is also a great fisherman.

"His book Dorschangeln vom Boot und an den Küsten [Cod fishing from a boat and the coast], which he wrote together with Dieter Schicker, also from 1980, is a classic. The book teaches the reader everything he has to know if he wants to catch cod (and its relatives of the family Gadidae) with a fishing rod." And having faithfully translated the link Eberhard sent in, we can tell you that Der Spiegel called it "a classic in the fishing literature", no less.

"Might I mention that famed Nobel-prize winning physicist, Niels Bohr, was a keen footballer and played in goal for his local Copenhagen team, Akademisk Boldclub." Yes, you might, Greg Jenner. "His brother Harald, a noted mathematician, even represented Denmark as a footballing Olympian. Admittedly their books are not quite as readable as Carlos Puyol's culinary adventures, but they go some way to dispelling the myth that footballers are stupid."

Indeed – unfortunately the Knowledge's usually excellent atomic physics is a little rusty, so no excerpts here. The same goes for The Road to Ithaca, a book by the former Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas. Tipping us off, Eoghan Kenny calls it "wide-ranging and rather high-brow for a footballer"; Wikipedia has it down as a series of recollections from his younger days, but the reviews describe a cross between a football story and a political manifesto, which likens Barcelona's 2005 title-winning side to Catalan fighters in the Spanish Civil War. We think.

It certainly beats Arild Stavrum's efforts for imagination. "I doubt they have been translated in to English," says Jostein Nygard, "even with the recent flood of Scandinavian crime novels to the British market." Stavrum left Molde having just turned 32, and a few years later published "31 years on the Pitch". Here's some of the blurb: "Joachim learned to dribble at four years old. While growing up, he had three dreams: he wanted to be the top scorer in the Norwegian Premier League, a national team player and a pro. At 31, he has achieved his goals. He has lived well by playing football for many years, but he's getting to the end of his contract at Molde FK and fears that his career is nearing its end." Hmm.

Thanks also to Alex Locatelli for pointing out the Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer's series of children's books, about young footballer Edward "Megs" Morrison's struggles to get a soccer team going after moving to Australia. "Will the Vootball Kids band together in the face of adversity? Can Megs remain focused on football despite some spiky issues at home? And how will the Kids perform in their first season playing competitive football?" We're hooked – which is more than can be said for our friend Eberhard Spohd, who only started reading about cod fishing after tiring of "Everything: A fictional historical novel", by the former German goalkeeper Bodo Illgner. "I couldn't read it long enough to find out what it's about," says Eberhard. "Too many greasy soft-porn scenes make this book unreadable."

If ever there was assurance of the merits of staying in one's comfort zone, however, it surely comes in the form of "Unforgettable Fire, the story of U2": written by Eamon Dunphy, eviscerated by critics, and emailed to us by Dave Bruen. Dunphy, a former Millwall, Charlton and Republic of Ireland midfielder, had already written his Diary of a Professional Footballer when he was asked by U2's manager to write about the band's early years. Though plenty of U2 fans enjoyed it, the book was variously described as "cloying and worshipful" and "full of breathtaking inaccuracies".

After publication, Dunphy criticised the way the band had treated him, the band said he had failed to let them see the manuscript and sort out the mistakes; Dunphy called Bono a "pompous git", Bono reportedly called Dunphy "rat poison". Either way, the book took a panning.

"The catalogue of errors piles up until it's impossible to see beyond it," wrote Neil McCormack, for Hot Press. "If what I know first-hand is so inaccurately represented (and these are not all the errors of which I'm aware, not by a long shot), then I can have no faith in any of the rest of Dunphy's storytelling. There is simply nothing I can take at face value in this book.

"Dunphy's not only guilty of outrageous inaccuracy, he is also grossly ill-informed on the subject that should be at the story's core: music... I filled 18 pages of a small notebook with Dunphy's errors, misrepresentations, misunderstandings and misinformed comment.

"Sometimes, reading this book, I get the feeling somebody's been pulling Dunphy's leg."

DELIBERATE OWN GOALS

"I was wondering if an own goal has ever been intentionally conceded by a player in protest or out of anger at his own club/fans/manager?" writes Thomas Houghton.

This is one of those bits where we find a few stories that don't quite fulfil the criteria so as to avoid leaving a blank space. There was talk that William Gallas had managed to force a move from Chelsea to Arsenal by threatening to score own goals if they made him stay but, though recent performances suggest sabotage is not beyond him, Gallas always denied the accusation. In the 1950s, Brian Clough accused his Middlesbrough team-mates of deliberately conceding goals in order to fleece the bookmakers. That (and the fact that he kept scoring enough goals to even matches up) made him an unpopular man in the dressing room.

There have been plenty of protest own goals scored – 149 in one game, in fact, but the target of the players' ire was the referee. In 2002 AS Adema beat the reigning Madagascan champions Stade Olympique de L'Emyrne 149-0 after SOE's players spent the whole game putting the ball into their own net during the final game of a round-robin title play-off. In the preceding game, SOE had been put out of the running for the title when the referee awarded a dubious late penalty with which DSA Antananarivo equalised. The coach and four players received suspensions and stadium bans, which at least spared them the agita of fans who wanted their money back.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"Is Verein für Leibesübungen Borussia Mönchengladbach the longest team name in football?" ask Robert Bashford and Justin Walker.

Far from it chaps: Anglesey League team Clwb Pêl-droed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch came pretty close to landing the prize with a weighty 70 letters, but Stuart Orford can do even better. "My favourite is Dutch Eredivisie side NAC Breda," he begins somewhat unconvincingly. "It expands to Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorzetten Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning Combinatie Breda."

"I'd like to nominate my team, UCD, in the League of Ireland Premier Division," says Kevin Burke. "Under some universities' act a few years ago, we officially became University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Dublin, Association Football Club (81 letters). There are some who'll suggest that, with that hideous new crest, it should now (unofficially) be University College Dublin Dublin, National University of Ireland Dublin, Association Football Club (87 letters). This would translate into Irish as Cumann Sacair Ollscoil na hÉireann Baile Átha Cliath Baile Átha Cliath, Ollscoil Náisiúnta na hÉireann Baile Átha Cliath, which is 102 letters and a comma."

Not bad, Kevin, but a rival school of learning trumps it. "I think you'd have to go some to beat the full name in Thai of Bangkok University FC," claims Liam O'Brien. "This would include the longest place name in the world, using the official Thai name for Bangkok. When translated into English, it would run to 189 characters as follows: Samosorn Maha Vittiyalai Krungthep Mahanakorn Boworn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noparat Rajathani Burirom Udom Rajaniwet Mahasatharn Amorn Phimarn Avatarn Sathit Sakkatattiya Vishnukarm Prasit."

But there's an even longer name in the very same city! That of Thai Pro League side Bangkok Bravo. "Should they ever wish to refer to themselves by their full (English translated) name," notes Dale Farrington, "they would be called: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit Bravo Association Football Club (196 characters). Try fitting that on a pools coupon!"

"A brothel in Greece has just started sponsoring an amateur club," writes Sam Beard. "While one side is sponsored by an 'escorts bar', whatever that is. Are there any other instances of this sort of thing out in the big wide footballing world?"